Workers inspect an area outside a retaining wall around storage tanks where a chemical leaked into the Elk River at Freedom Industries storage facility in Charleston, W. Va., Monday, Jan. 13, 2014.

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USA TODAY

The well-being of Americans hasn't improved in the past six years, and it even declined slightly in 2013, according to a recent Gallup study. While national figures remained flat overall, the ranks of the states with the highest well-being scores changed considerably. North Dakota topped the well-being list in 2013 after failing to crack the top 10 in 2012. Hawaii, 2012's top state, fell to eighth in 2013. West Virginia, on the other hand, remained at the bottom of the list for the fifth consecutive year.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which interviewed more than 176,000 people ...